Understanding the emergence of a social enterprise by highly skilled migrants

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the emergence of a social enterprise by highly skilled members of a diaspora. While most literature has focused on government intervention for diaspora engagement and monetary remittance flows from migrants, less attention has been paid to the transfer of social remittances and social enterprises created by diasporas. Based on the concept of social remittances, social network theory and motivation perspectives, this study unpacks the emergence of a social enterprise by highly skilled migrants of a developing country. Design/methodology/approach This study examines social enterprise emergence through an autoethnographic approach to describe and systematically analyze personal experience. This approach allows to understand cultural experience around the emergence of a social enterprise created by diverse members of a diaspora. Findings Findings reveal that diaspora knowledge networks (DKNs) can emerge through the activation of a highly skilled diaspora network structure. Core diaspora members can activate a latent network of highly skilled migrants that wish to fulfill intrinsic motivations. Findings support the extend current understandings of social remittances by highly skilled migrants, who emerge as a transnational community that desires to stay connected to their country-of-origin and can support the emergence of a transnational network structure for development. The findings reveal that place attachment, sense of duty and well-being are key factors for highly skilled migrants to engage in DKNs. Originality/value The paper contributes to literature on networks and migrant-based organizational emergence by examining how and why highly skilled migrants from a developing country engage in the emergence of a DKN. Findings challenge previous views of government intervention and provides evidence on how the transmission of collective social remittances can flow trans-nationally, making highly skilled migrants effective agents of knowledge circulation and DKNs a vehicle for transmission. More specifically, the study provides evidence of the relevance of transnational features in the context of diaspora networks that lead to organizational emergence. It underscores the influence of interrelated motivations in diaspora engagement studies.

Researching migrant entrepreneurship communities: a reflection through collaborative (auto)ethnographies

“…Various theoretical approaches have led to different debates and new conceptual understandings. A growing body of scholars has made progress in understanding how migrant communities can be studied through processual and contextualized views (Vershinina and Rodgers 2019a;Discua Cruz and Fromm 2019). Such advances have encouraged a view of migrant communities as dynamic and evolving, recognizing the importance of migrant individuals, their voices, their heterogeneous stories, and their embedded agency.…”

“…The same set of methodologies has been adopted in studies of migrant communities, where the need for more critical methodologies and greater reflexivity in research design and practice is starting to be recognized (Discua Cruz and Cerrato 2019). In recent studies, scholars call for empirical studies in migrant entrepreneurship that consider drawing more widely on accounts of migrants' experiences in the micropractice of the everyday, and to adopt a broad critical intent (Fromm et al 2020;Discua Cruz and Fromm 2019). Such a methodological focus offers researchers an opportunity to explore new investigatory techniques that challenge dominant theoretical understandings and produce more relevant insights, reflective of the heterogeneity of migrant populations and the more contemporary challenges that they encounter and overcome.…”

“…In Discua Cruz and Fromm (2019), researchers set out to understand the concept of diaspora and its relationship to migrant entrepreneurship. In our study, diaspora relates to individuals and members of networks, associations, and communities who have left their country of origin but maintain links with their homelands (Safran 1991).…”

“…The field of migrant entrepreneurship is mature. It builds on the work of numerous sociologists and anthropologists, whose insight on structure and agency (Giddens 1984), acculturation (Light et al 1994;Portes and Jensen 1989), forms of capital (Ram et al 2008;Discua Cruz and Fromm 2019), with special focus on ethnicity and social capital (Barrett and Vershinina 2017), and the latest theory of mixed embeddedness (Kloosterman et al 2016;Kloosterman et al 1999), highlight how migrants engage a set of resources to fit their ventures within the institutional, political, and regulatory environment. Whilst the empirical work illuminating how migrant entrepreneurial actors from different ethnic groups and countries settle in new host environments engages a variety of methodologies, studies very rarely reflect upon the role of the researcher within such scholarly works.…”

Engaging Honduran Science Diasporas for Development: Evidence From Three Consolidated Networks

“…As a Central American country, Honduras is a scientifically lagging country, sharing the same obstacles as the region to keep their highly skilled professionals. Admittedly, according to Discua and Cerrato ( 2019 ), the country has started to recognize prominent Hondurans in arts, entrepreneurship, international business (Discua and Cerrato, 2019 ), and social enterprise of the Honduran diaspora (Discua and Fromm, 2018 ). As for science diasporas, there is no official or centralized database of the HSD built by any public institution (i.e., Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Secretariat of Planning, Honduras Institute of Science and Technology) in Honduras.…”